Sinical Magazine: Do you remember the first fetish magazine or book you came across?

Alexandra Snow: Throughout my childhood, I was a voracious reader, and remain so to this day. I remember perusing the very expansive public library bookshelves for books with interesting covers when I came across the original Venus in Furs by Leopod von Sacher-Masoch, next to Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty on a display. I took them both and read them cover-to-cover in great fascination, even until the books were way past due. I remember outright paying for the books so that no one else could have them!

Sinical Magazine: How did you get started in fetish modeling?

Alexandra Snow: I started modelling in 2004 for assorted small fetish websites, but soon realized that there was no money in photos and if I was going to be serious about pursuing a career, it would need to be in video. As an actual Domina, this wasn’t a difficult stretch, and I soon developed a very devout following. I built my own media production company from scratch and I now produce 100% of my videos, so I have total control over my content. Once I conquered the fetish video world, I realized that I’d neglected the photography end. I’ve been rectifying that over the last several years and intend to make my mark there as well.

Sinical Magazine: What do you think makes a model stand apart from others?

Alexandra Snow: The ability to emote. Whether this is in photo or video, the model needs to be able to be portray a moment in time with feeling, not just be a pretty face.

Sinical Magazine: From a model’s perspective, what do you think is the most important aspect of a photo?

Alexandra Snow: In this day and age, more photographers seek to collaborate than just outright hire a model. This makes the work so much more interesting and dynamic! For me, I look for depth in a photo. I want it to speak to me on some level, convey something interesting or thought-provoking. When I model, I strive to create that dimension.

In POV video (my specific genre), you are essentially destroying the fourth wall of reality that separates the medium from the viewer. In theatre, this is when a character speaks directly to the audience, but in fetish video.. this is an incredibly difficult thing to accomplish. You have to think ahead each step of the way and authentically portray the scenario or fetish at hand. What really defines a great video is connecting with the viewer so that he or she believes you are talking to them and no one else.

Sinical Magazine: In this photo set you are wearing nylons. What is the appeal of nylons to you?

Alexandra Snow: I’ve always been a nylon fanatic! I have incredibly sensitive feet and legs, so the feel of nylons has always been a very sensual experience. I’ve developed a great appreciation for different types of hosiery.. and my collection grows every day. My favorites remain Wolford, Transparenze, and Eleganti.

Sinical Magazine: Clothing wise, what are your fetishes and why?

Alexandra Snow: Although I have a huge wardrobe filled with leather, latex, and lingerie.. I’m a silk/satin fetishist at heart. It’s why I love nylons so much as well. There’s something about the glossy, soft feel of a satin corset that puts other options to shame. Next to satin, I’m equally in love with leather and with corsets. I currently own more than 30 corsets and think it’s a paltry number when I go to get dressed. I also enjoy the smell and feel of high quality, fashionable leather.

Sinical Magazine: What are your measurements?

Alexandra Snow: I am 34G (natural) - 26 - 33, and I’m 5’5. The running joke is that all I ever wanted to be was tall, but I got large breasts instead. Hey-- use what you’ve got!

Sinical Magazine: What is your shoe size?

Alexandra Snow: I am a size 8.

Sinical Magazine: How did you become a Dominant?

Alexandra Snow: People like me are exceedingly rare because we are not our occupations, instead turning our occupations into who we are. I have always been a Dominant woman. I never had a crisis of identity, either. I knew what I was. I was putting neighbor kids in dog crates in elementary school (calling it “playing kennel”), and it was all downhill after that. But I believe that being a Dominant personality is no better or worse than any other type, it simply describes a very specific desire to be in charge. With that desire, of course, comes great responsibility (cue Spiderman music) because you must make yourself an impressive leader if you wish to be followed. This is why we differentiate between someone who is a “Dominant” or a “Top.”

Sinical Magazine: How did you get started in a career in professional Domination?

Alexandra Snow: I began in the white collar business world (IT and marketing), and that came with morality clauses in my contract prohibiting me from having profiles on BDSM community sites. I decided to transition into being an independent consultant, and with that came online freedom. It wasn’t long before I was meeting new people and playing with those that caught my fancy. It wasn’t just “fun”-- it was really, truly fulfilling! When I moved to Columbus, OH, I realized that I had a choice to pursue professional Domination as a career and do it differently. I took that chance.

I was obsessive in my pursuit of knowledge. I already had a background in sexual behaviors psychology from John Hopkins, so I knew the mental aspects well. In everything else, I took classes, read books, traveled to seminars, sought personal instruction, and practiced until my fingers bled. I was never happy with being “proficient” in something-- I had to be exceptional. I wanted to be able to do it all.. so I did. Now I teach classes in everything from advanced suspension techniques to sanitation and disinfection protocols.

I built my dungeon, Wicked Eden, and then trained a core group of amazing staff. We are all set to expand our facility into a new space in 2015 and add a few more kinky go-getters to the ranks.

Sinical Magazine: What are some of your specialties?

Alexandra Snow: Some of the areas that I have a reputation include: advanced rope bondage (including suspensions and predicaments), PVC wrap bondage, foot worship/domination, tease and denial, CBT, medical play, elaborate role plays, abduction scenarios, extended/overnight scenarios, and much more.

Sinical Magazine: Do you have any favourite BDSM devices or toys?

Alexandra Snow: I believe that she who dies with the most toys wins, and I intend to win. My dungeon is so full of devices that you could go for days without repeating. I get bored easily, so I find it important to have lots of things to keep my attention.

Sinical Magazine: What can a client expect from you in his first visit?

Alexandra Snow: The first time I meet with someone, we sit and talk, off the session clock. I spend this time getting to know the person and figuring out what they are truly looking for and ensuring that we are a good match. My primary fetish is control. In order to satisfy that fetish, I need to be able to get inside my subject’s mind and figure out how he ticks. After that, I craft a session that includes the activities we both enjoy so the experience is fulfilling for both parties.

Sinical Magazine: Is S&M a form of psychotherapy?

Alexandra Snow: It certainly can be, but so can going to the gym and traveling abroad. BDSM requires a higher level of self-awareness and honesty in communication, both of which are tenants in psychotherapy, so if someone is able to work through their issues with kink, then it’s a bonus. But all people have baggage and the human experience is about how we deal with that baggage. In the last decade of seeing clients, I feel the biggest impact I have on their issues is that I accept them for who they are. Plain and simple: I don’t judge. We all need that in our lives.

Sinical Magazine: Can you talk about some of your various websites?

Alexandra Snow: The portal website that allows you to get to all the different things that I do is AlexandraSnow.com, which includes the links to my dungeon (Wicked Eden), to information about making appointments for in-person or remote sessions, details about booking me as a model or what projects I am booking models for, current publication appearances, and how to find my videos.

Sinical Magazine: What type of videos are on your Clips4Sale page?

Alexandra Snow: I have been a perpetual top 10 store on Clips4Sale since 2011 and I am the only FemDom model-producer to do that. Although I am classified as a “FemDom POV” video producer, my genre is not limited to that. My videos encompass everything from hypnosis to sensual domination to specific fetishes (like nylons) to transformations and supernatural scenarios. I have several new projects that are still in the works, including the complete overhaul of my membership site, Vicious Beauty.

Sinical Magazine: What type of music do you listen to?

Alexandra Snow: My tastes are very eclectic. I like everything from Buddha Bar to electronica to classic rock to old school Goth/industrial. My Spotify account looks like it has multiple personalities.

Sinical Magazine: What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?

Alexandra Snow: I love historical fiction and really intelligent fantasy, so Phillipa Gregory, Ken Follett, and George R. R. Martin top my list. I was a huge Game of Thrones fan before HBO even knew who they were. ;)

Sinical Magazine: Do you have any upcoming projects or events you will be appearing at you would like to mention?

Alexandra Snow: I have lots of exciting things that I can’t quite say yet, but like my shiny new Facebook page (Facebook.com/DominaSnow) and follow me on Twitter (@DominaSnow) for all the announcements as they come out. |

Steve Diet Goedde has been a fine art photographer for 25 years. His subtle approach to photographing the high-gloss fetish world with a very non-gloss, down-to-earth aesthetic sets him apart from that genre’s more typical styles. (www.stevedietgoedde.com).

Titled Arrangements, the retrospective features never-before-seen images from Goedde’s recent and classic photoshoots, alongside a few iconic fan favorites - in fact, nearly 50% of these images are previously unpublished. The series is being launched via a Kickstarter campaign that has earned a Staff Pick from the fundraising site as one of the best projects currently on offer there.

Angela Ryan is an international cover model and burlesque performer. She has collaborated with Steve Diet Goedde on several occasions and conducted this interview.

Angela Ryan: Why is photography important?

Steve Diet Goedde: The art of photography is more important than ever right now. We live in an age where photography is incorrectly perceived as an effortless art form that anyone can do thanks to iPhones and Instagram. Amongst the masses, 100+ years of photography appreciation is quickly eroding away because 'anyone can do it!'. People have to be educated that photography has been and will continue to be as aesthetically legitimate as other arts such as painting and sculpture, to name a few.

Angela Ryan: What does "fetish photography" mean to you?

Steve Diet Goedde: I don't really consider what I do as fetish photography. I mean, yes, there are usually some fetishistic elements in my work, but that's not what my work is about. The general aspects of art photography come first - light, composition, and tone. And then there's the emotional weight of the image - the lyrical content as depicted by the model. What she is wearing (or not wearing) is an important element in how she is portrayed. What she's wearing should have some sort of emotional relation to her external demeanor whether it's empowerment or simply erotic introspection. Basically, my work comes down to being fashion photography but from a psychological perspective. To me, the term 'fetish photography' refers to a photographer's documentation of what turns them on, whether it's done artistically or not. Since the fetishistic elements in my work are usually secondary to emotion and photographicaesthetics, I don't like labeling my work as such.

Angela Ryan: Is there something you always ask to yourself or think just before you push the button?

Steve Diet Goedde: Because I don't crop my photos, many variables must be considered before I take a photo. In that split second, I have to decide if the composition and lighting are up to my standards, are the posing and clothing details correct, but most importantly, is the emotional content in line with my aesthetic. What is the expression of the model and does it fit into the mood I'm going for? All those elements have to synchronize, otherwise I do not take the photo and will work with it until it's right or just move onto another idea.

Angela Ryan: What do you shoot with and why?

Steve Diet Goedde: I'm not a tech-oriented photographer so I could care less about the newest, most fancy camera on the market. It doesn't matter in terms of creating my art. It's the photographer who takes a great photo, not the camera. It all comes down to decisions - when to take a photo and what's in that photo. You can do that with any camera from the shittiest cellphone camera to the most expensive digital Hasselblad on the market. My main camera is my Mamiya 645 medium format camera - it's the camera that I've used from the beginning. It's the one that gave me my style in the early 1990s so I still use it as my base camera, and I'll always use it. I do like experimenting with low-tech cameras like Holgas and Polaroids - just to mix it up a bit. With color, I'm not that concerned about a consistent look because I'm not as committed to it as I am with my black and white. Most of my color work of the last ten years was shot with a (now old) Nikon D200 or my 35mm Canon A1 which I bought when I was 14.

Angela Ryan: Why black and white for one image? Why color for another?

Steve Diet Goedde: Basically it all has to do with light and color. My preference is black and white and it will always be my default style. However, some situations just demand color. For instance, when I have a model wearing a bright red dress in a predominantly luscious green environment, it's just too colorful not to shoot in color. Also, you have to consider how certain colors will show up as tones when captured with black and white film. This red/green combo I just mentioned, although great in color, would be very monotone in black and white. Strip the color out, and red and green can be near the same tone of grey, thus not a very tonally dynamic black and white photograph.

Angela Ryan: Have the cities you lived in played a role in the images you have created? Specifically the stark contrast between the the cold and bleak urban setting of Chicago where you started versus the radiance and golden warmth of Los Angeles where you currently reside?*

Steve Diet Goedde: Most definitely! When I first started taking photos in Chicago in the early1990s, I shot under many overcast skies which was perfect for the tonal range that I preferred. The sky often acted as one large softbox and because of that, a visual style quickly emerged. In addition to atmospheric conditions, environment played a big role too. I lived across the Chicago River from Goose Island which at the time was a mostly abandoned industrial area (now a hip retail/living environment), so I had unlimited access to that as my shooting ground. That, in addition to older Chicago architecture, provided me with incredibly visual backdrops. In 1998, I moved to Los Angeles where not only the environment and architecture were different, the light had a completely different quality. So I basically had to adapt to a whole new set of rules - something of which I found most welcome because I never want to stick with a certain style for too long. As an artist, I like to evolve and not settle with an assembly line method of producing art.

Angela Ryan: Can you tease us with what to expect in ARRANGEMENTS Volumes I & II?

Steve Diet Goedde: If you couldn't tell already, we're going backwards with this series, starting with 'Volume III'. For years, people have been asking for a new book from me. If we had released 'Volume I' first, it would've consisted of all the work they've already seen from *The Beauty of Fetish* years. Even though the volume will contain a LOT of unseen work from that era, it just seemed more exciting to release all the new work first. The second volume will consist of all the work I did immediately after *The Beauty of Fetish* years which was my most productive era. I shot so much quality work from that period (2000-2006) that I did end up securing a publisher for that work in 2007, but unfortunately that publisher went out of business in 2008, and of course the book was scrapped. So now I finally will have a platform to release a wonderful collection of work from that period in my career.

*If you are ordering from Brazil, Norway, Switzerland, or Canada, please contact us directly due to the additional shipping charges. If you do not contact us, we will not process your order. This issue is shipped in clear plastic.

*If you are ordering from Brazil, Norway, Switzerland or Canada, please contact us directly due to the additional shipping charges. If you do not contact us, we will not process your order. This issue is shipped in clear plastic.